Chapter 138

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

After breakfast, Han Li divided the students into groups and assigned Lu Wenming to lead one.

Lu Wenming was experienced and older, patient in his work; in the previous days, when other students had unfinished tasks, he couldn't bear to watch and would help check them.

This was different from being a retainer under an official; after all, interests were at stake, the pie was only so big—if you ate it, I had none.

The students were relatively simple, and they were going to a place like Huazhou, which few people cared about anyway; everyone knew they were going to do hard labor, and whatever head or leader positions were clearly meant to do even more work—just look at Han Li and Kong Fuyang. So the people in his group had no objection to him being the group leader, calling him "Brother Lu" over and over.

After explaining the grouping, Han Li briefly outlined the plan to open up Wang Jing River in Huazhou this time, clarifying that measuring the water conditions was crucial for everyone.

"Summer floods are usually greater than spring floods; if we cannot accurately measure the spring flood's water flow, course, and depth, and the accumulation of silt..." he explained one by one, "then we cannot confirm whether the width and depth of Wang Jing River in various places, and its tributary channels, can support the diversion, and we also need to rebuild the water dam and water gates."

Wang Jing River involved a vast area, originating in Rongyang and flowing into the sea at Qian Cheng; it was a genuine thousand-mile great embankment, not something that could be maintained by Huazhou alone.

When it was repaired eight hundred years ago, it mobilized 100,000 laborers and took a year to complete; although it was being reactivated now, it had been abandoned for a long time and was still very difficult.

According to the old method, there had to be an embankment every ten li, which definitely could not be done.

Fortunately, river affairs were always a key assessment item for officials of various prefectures and counties; the Du Shui Jian had sent letters to all prefectures and counties along the route, ordering repairs. Even if they couldn't contribute much labor to the repairs, as long as the river channel wasn't blocked, the river water would follow its habit and rush back to the old course.

As for future dredging of silt and stones downstream and repairing and reusing the water gates, they would have to take it one step at a time—after using it once and finding this route feasible, as long as local officials weren't negligent to the extreme, they should at least make a perfunctory show of it.

After that, it was no longer something this group of students should manage.

Even so, hearing Han Li break down, introduce, and assign work to each group, although they knew what they did was only for reference and would surely need to be rechecked by people from various counties and towns in the future, everyone still held their breath and couldn't help but look at each other.

After Han Li finished explaining the departure time and left, the ancestral hall suddenly exploded.

"Oh my, Wang Jing River! Is that the one Wang Jing majored in during the Ming Emperor's reign? I only read about it in books and heard teachers say it, thinking it was an ancient relic; I never expected this river to still exist, and this time I can actually see it, and you and I get to participate!"

"Just look at you, you didn't read properly! At the beginning of the founding dynasty, this river was still in use; it was just abandoned for a few decades."

"I'm a southerner; how would I know your northerners' river!"

"What's there to argue about? I just want to know if this river can finally be opened?"

"Probably can. Liu Ta He needs to be dug for a hundred li; although Huazhou has few people and can't compare to that place with money and manpower, after all it's only four li—just don't know if it'll work!"

"Four li, how can you say it's as easy as drinking four mouthfuls of water? It's only a few dozen days until the summer flood; is it just digging soil? What if there are mountains and ditches in between, or it's all stones?"

The speaker was actually genuinely worried here.

But soon, someone advised him: "What are you afraid of? Didn't Leader Han just say he would coordinate the digging of the channel? He said coordinate on the surface, but look at his tone—he seems very confident."

Everyone suddenly had nothing to say.

Time was tight, the task was important, but Leader Han was calm and composed, assigning tasks in an orderly manner, which made them seem frivolous instead.

The room suddenly became quiet for a while.

After a long while, someone suddenly sighed: "I thought we were just coming to dig soil and repair embankments..."

"Right, isn't this repairing embankments?"

"Right, your head! Is this the same thing?" The speaking student muttered, "Damn, if it really succeeds, do we count as water conservancy meritorious officials? Although not as grand as Liu Ta He over there, when we go back, in the future when we're old, we can take it out and brag about it!"

"No need to wait until we're old!" Another chubby-faced student had already started looking anxious, "My mother is from Huazhou; when she heard I came to repair embankments, she praised me nonstop. If we can really open such a big channel, she can praise me for a year!"

The work hadn't even been done, but a group of students were already excitedly looking forward to the future, which made Lu Wenming, sitting to the side and having just become a group leader, couldn't help but grin.

Even if the matter failed, this group of people had no worries at the moment; food, clothing, shelter, and travel were all taken care of, they only needed to pursue one thing and work hard from morning to night, which made it hard not to be influenced.

He had seen Leader Han and Kong Fuyang, in order to check a number, lie on the ground, one pulling the other's leg to lower the soft ruler; to measure thoroughly, they were soaked by rain but refused to give up.

Other students, because they had made a mistake in a number the previous day and were caught by Leader Han, although not criticized, still felt ashamed; the next day, to verify, several people argued until midnight, their eyes red like black-boned chickens, refusing to sleep—clearly doing something so stupid with no benefit, yet everyone still enjoyed it.

Even himself, every day when going out and doing things, he didn't feel tired; it seemed like in the blink of an eye it was noon—the most anticipated thing was to sit down and eat lunch, to see what Song Xiaoniangzi had made to bring out.

After finishing work in the afternoon, no matter how hard, his heart was full of anticipation—he didn't know what delicious food Song Xiaoniangzi would make when he returned in the evening!

Finally back with great difficulty, seeing the young lady smilingly serving the food, and the big pancake with a round head happily following along, it was simply that a golden nest and silver nest were not as good as one's own dog nest.

Also being cared about: "Did you drink enough today?" "Was lunch enough to eat?" "Working so hard, eat more at night." During the day, if he did a little less, he was too embarrassed to snatch another bite of food in front of Song Xiaoniangzi with that group of wolf-like students.

Even a mature adult like Lu Wenming couldn't help but think this way, let alone the other students.

So more than ten people, when they could travel they traveled, when they couldn't travel because the road ahead was blocked, they went to measure water conditions; they didn't travel fast, toiling and laboring, especially when measuring, they set out before dawn and returned after dark, and at night they stayed up late with oil lamps to repeatedly calculate, but there were very few complaints.

On the eighteenth day of departure, the group finally arrived at the prefectural city.

When entering the city it was still early morning; Han Li led everyone to first take the travel documents and seals to the official post station to stay. Since he only knew that day was a rest day, he wasn't in a hurry to report to the government office, but first told the students to be careful and cautious when going out, to send someone back to report news if anything happened, and so on, then simply gave everyone a day off.

After working hard for more than half a month, they finally had a rest; the students were like monkeys with wings, flying and jumping around. Some younger, more lively ones, as soon as they went out, called out and ran away.

Even a mature adult like Lu Wenming, after putting down his luggage, hurried out to buy some daily necessities.

After confirming there was money on the big pancake's body, Song Miao let him go out to stroll, only telling him to pay attention to safety. She herself returned to the room to tidy up, rested for a while, then took out paper and brush, packed them into a small bundle, preparing to go out.

Just as she walked to the front hall of the official post station, she saw someone suddenly stand up from the corner.

It was neither early nor late; the hall was originally quite empty, and this person was tall. After standing up, he walked straight toward Song Miao, first greeted her, then asked: "Stall Owner Song, where are you going? Are you going out?"

It was Han Li.

Song Miao smiled and responded: "Today, thanks to Young Master's blessing, I've stolen a day of leisure and want to wander around aimlessly."

Han Li thought for a moment, then said: "You've really been working hard these days. It's rare to have a day off today. You wandering alone, not even able to carry things properly—if you don't mind, I have no miscellaneous business at the moment. How about I accompany you for a walk?"

Song Miao was stunned, hesitated for a moment, and honestly said: "I won't hide it from Young Master. Earlier, you asked me to tally the required kitchenware, cooking utensils, various expenses, and personnel. Although I have a rough idea, after all, I don't know the prices. Even if I knew the prices, they would only be the retail prices in the capital."

"It's rare that we've arrived here today and have a day off. I want to visit various shops, ask for prices, compare them, and also check the prices of grain, rice, vegetables, fruits, meat, vegetables, and so on. Also, there's manpower. When the time comes, I'll have people purchase them, so I'll have a clear idea in mind and won't be deceived by others..."

When she said this, she couldn't help but laugh a little and said: "Wandering like this is actually somewhat boring..."

Han Li laughed: "Stall Owner Song is so diligent, it makes Han seem lazy. Even if it's just so that I won't be deceived by others in the future—I should accompany you all the more."

His voice was very gentle. As he spoke, he stepped aside and extended his right hand, not saying anything, just looking at the small bundle behind Song Miao.

This action was very natural, and his gaze was also natural. Song Miao, without realizing it, naturally untied the bundle and handed it over.

Han Li took it with his hand, holding it half-raised, stepping out after Song Miao by half a step, and they exited the door one after another.

After stepping out, as he walked, he caught up half a step, leaned forward, and chatted idly with her.

Chatting idly was truly idle talk—he asked whether this Yi Guan Guan was clean enough, whether the rooms were damp, whether they needed changing, whether the hot water sent by the yamen runners at night was hot enough, and so on.

Song Miao answered two sentences first; seeing that he asked in detail, not merely making polite small talk, and would press further, she also answered seriously, with give and take, and asked back a few sentences.

Seeing his movements, she unconsciously slowed down half a step on her own initiative.

As they walked, no one knew from which step onward, the two were already walking side by side.

The Yi Guan Guan was considered a prosperous place in the city; after stepping out, they had not walked far before there were many shops.

Song Miao went inside and asked the price of each item one by one, then found a shop assistant to ask if she could get a discount for buying more, and then recorded each one.

She was naturally meticulous in doing things, and her questions were very organized; before long, she had finished sweeping through one shop.

Han Li first stood to the side listening to her ask, listening to her speak, watching her select things one by one; when they got to the second shop, he took the initiative to take the paper and brush over to help copy them down.

The two doing things together was naturally faster than one person.

Hua Prefecture was originally a county changed into a prefecture; the prefecture city was not very large. After walking half a day, the two most prosperous streets had already been thoroughly browsed, and Song Miao's paper was densely covered with writing.

Seeing it was mealtime, Han Li said: "All along the way, the meals have been decided by Stall Owner Song; today let me make the decision for a while—let's eat these two meals outside, and let me treat you, how about it?"

It was a small matter of one or two meals; Song Miao naturally would not argue with Han Li over it. She smiled and nodded, saying: "Then today I'll take advantage and eat some free food."

She added: "Just now I saw a food shop in the alley ahead; it looked quite clean and smelled quite fragrant."

Han Li had originally already chosen a Jiu Lou, but upon hearing this, he immediately changed his mind, saying: "Then let's go try that one?"

But before they reached that food shop, just as they stepped out of the alley entrance, they saw a public wall in the prefecture city with wanted posters.

Under the public wall, several people were surrounding an old man, listening to the old man point at one of the portraits and point out details.

"……saying his son went missing; whoever can help find him will be rewarded with three hundred guan."

Hearing three hundred guan, the whole circle of people made gasping sounds, looking at the portrait again and again, each sighing with emotion.

"Children all look about the same; this picture doesn't show any appearance—when did we have a wealthy man surnamed Xiang around here?"

"Three hundred guan, so generous! Indeed, the money of rich families is spent like leaves!"

"I heard people say it's a relative from the Xie family's old home coming to visit; right now someone went missing at home, and the Xie family is also anxious to no end, sending people everywhere to inquire!"

"If I knew where this child is, I'd surely strike it rich!"

Hearing this idle talk and knowing a child had gone missing, as the two passed by, they unconsciously stopped their steps to look.

The painting skill was quite ordinary, but one could still see that the child had two characteristics: one was a small mole on the tip of his nose, and the other was that he was quite fat.

Song Miao carefully examined it for a while, confirmed she had never seen him, then looked at the text below, which said a child named Xiang Lin had gone missing from home; if there were clues, please come to the door to report quickly.

If a living person was found, the reward was three hundred guan; if clues could be provided, once confirmed true, the reward was ten guan; finally, the address for reporting was given: the Xie residence in a certain alley, or any Xie Ji Rice Shop in the city.

Just as she finished reading the missing person notice, she heard a noisy commotion ahead; it was someone running out of a shop ahead, shouting toward the shop next door: "Who has spare time? Who has spare time?"

She added: "That old lady has fainted! Who has spare time to help invite Eldest Sister Huang from behind?"

Soon, a shop assistant ran out from inside that shop.

And the people next door who had just been discussing the missing child suddenly changed the subject.

"What a sin—is it that Wei Laopo whose son just died?"

"A white-haired person sending off a black-haired person, sigh!"

"Have you heard? Her son……seemed to like going out drinking and carousing; this time he was hacked to death by his wife's younger brother while drunk!"